Cocaine-smuggling Trial Continues

December 3, 1985|United Press International

Testimony resumed Monday in the Clarksburg, W.Va. federal drug trial of four defendants allegedly linked to the Anthony Spadafore cocaine ring that purportedly imported the illegal drug from South America through Miami.

Standing trial in U.S. District Court are Fairmont lawyer James Esposito, Joseph Scutella of Erie, Pa., and Robert and Eileen Pietrzak, also of Erie. Mr. Pietrzak is a retired Erie police captain.

The four -- along with 17 others -- were indicted by a federal grand jury last summer for allegedly importing large quantities of cocaine and other drugs into northcentral West Virginia from Peru through Miami. Fairmont businessman Anthony Spadafore, the convicted organizer of the ring, two brothers and several other defendants already have entered into plea agreements with federal prosecutors.